1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telecommunications, and, more particularly, to wireless communications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellular communication systems have increasingly become popular over the last several years. A number of complementary standards or protocols, such as IS-2000 or HRPD, have come into fairly common usage. These standards have been used to transmit voice signals, low speed data, and high-speed data. Accordingly, it has been useful for access terminals to be developed that are capable of operating using two (or more) standards. These access terminals are commonly referred to as dual-mode, and typically include substantially separate control systems for each standard.
Advantages in converging the standards into a common mobile terminal may exist. However, these integration aspirations have given rise to security issues, such as determining an efficient and secure manner of authenticating an access terminal under each standard. Typically, the authentication processes for the separate standards are substantially dissimilar and employ substantially different hardware and/or software to perform the authentication process for each standard.
The present invention is directed to addressing one or more of the problems set forth above.